Resources

Lots of resources about different elements of healthy ageing are available on the internet and in print.

Below you can find a selection of key resources, which you can filter, about healthy ageing.

Resources

Social Europe Guide on Demography, Active Ageing and Pension

The Social Europe guide is a bi-annual publication covering specific areas of EU policy in the field of employment, social affairs and inclusion. It illustrates the key issues and challenges, explains policy actions and instruments at EU level and provides examples of best practices from Member States. It also presents views on the subject from the Council Presidency and the European Parliament. In the just released volume, the publication describes the EU's actions to promote active ageing, and explains EU policy efforts to ensure adequate, safe and sustainable pensions for the decades to come.

The EU Contribution to Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations

The brochure "The EU Contribution to Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations" is a comprehensive document setting out what the European Union is doing to encourage active ageing. The main tools to support active ageing are in the hands of policymakers in the Member States. However, the EU can mobilise a wide range of policy instruments to support national governments and other stakeholders in their efforts. Hence, the brochure covers existing measures at EU level, but also looks at others that are still being discussed, such as legislation in the pipeline and proposals for funding programmes in the new 2014-20 budget cycle. The overall aim is to inspire more determined efforts in all Member States to promote active ageing, thereby ensuring that solidarity between generations can withstand the test of population ageing.

OECD - Roadmap for the good design of defined contribution pension plans

In seeking to assist countries to strengthen retirement income adequacy in a defined contribution environment, the OECD Working Party on Private Pensions has identified elements of good design and public policy. The 10 recommendations in the roadmap were approved and endorsed by the OECD Working Party on Private Pensions in June 2012 and can be found in the file below.

U.S. Census Bureau/World HealthOrganization - Shades of Gray: A Cross-Country Study of Health and Wellbeing of the Older Populations in SAGE Countries, 2007-2010

Although considerable attention has been paid to the aging of populations around the world, the vast majority of this attention and related research has focused on higher-income countries.This report has examined the health and health care utilization of the population aged 50 and older in the six countries - China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. By virtue of the sheer size of the older population in these six countries and their share of the world's total older population, their health status is certain to have a remarkable impact on the world's overall disease burden and health care.

This report provided a summary of the health status and access to health care by older populations in six middle- and low-income countries, thereby filling crucial gaps in health information and measurement techniques in response to aging populations. These results contribute to increasing and ongoing efforts to better understand the dynamics of aging through cross-national and multidisciplinary research. As the future pace of population aging will likely exceed the rapid speed that has taken place thus far, preparations for an aging population need to advance now in these six countries, as well as in most middle- and low-income countries, to avoid the costs and penalties from waiting to respond.

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - A Rapid Evidence Review of Interventions for Improving Health Literacy

The promotion of health literacy is critical for active and informed participation in health and healthcare, and is identified as a key action to reduce health inequalities. This report presents the outcomes of a rapid review of the evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to improve health literacy, with a specific focus on communicable diseases and interventions for disadvantaged populations within the European context. The review identifies gaps in the research evidence concerning which interventions are most effective in improving health literacy, particularly with regard to communicable diseases and studies conducted in Europe. It highlights that further research is needed on the impact of health literacy interventions in the public health field, paying particular attention to evaluating communication about communicable diseases, and determining the most effective strategies for meeting the needs of population groups with low literacy levels, and those who are vulnerable, disadvantaged and hard to reach.

The German Federal Statistical Office, in collaboration with Eurostat, has just published the brochure "Active ageing" as a contribution to the European Year 2012.The 10-page publication paints a picture of life beyond 65 on the basis of official European statistics and shows how life expectancy in the EU is ever increasing. People are not only living longer - a growing proportion is also able to maintain a fairly good level of health even at an advanced age. This brochure complements the report 'Older People in Germany and the EU', published by the Federal office in December 2011, which provides an in-depth portrait about how seniors live in Germany and across the EU, examining their family relationships, their presence on the job market and their social involvement.

NHS Scotland published the summer edition of it magazine, aiming at informing about the actions undertaken in 2012. It focuses its edition on a "long and healthy future" where it explains how it helps developing a healthy ageing improvement plan for Scotland.

The 2012 Ageing Report: Economic and budgetary projections for the EU27 Member States (2010-2060)

The European Commission has released 'The 2012 Ageing Report: Economic and budgetary projections for the EU27 Member States (2010-2060)', analysing the economic and budgetary impact of an ageing population over the long-term. The report, presented to the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in May 2012, details the expenditure projections covering pensions, health care, long-term care, education and unemployment transfers for all Member States. A statistical annex gives a country-by-country overview of the main assumptions and results. On the basis of current policies, age-related public expenditures (pensions, health-care and long-term care) are projected to increase by 4.1 percentage points to around to around 29% of GDP between 2010 and 2060. Public pension expenditure alone is projected to rise by 1.5 percentage points to nearly 13% of GDP by 2060. However, the report shows a large diversity across EU Member States, depending notably on progress with pension reforms.

Demographic ageing and social changes will make it harder to care for older people who cannot cope without help. Based on a recently published OECD report, this policy brief calls for a comprehensive approach to long-term care and addresses the following questions:

The Demography Report 2010: Older, more numerous and diverse Europeans, produced jointly by Eurostat and the European Commission, describes a Europe which has passed the 500 million population mark, with growth fuelled mainly by migration rather than fertility, and a population that is becoming progressively older and more diverse.

This briefing, produced by EuroHealthNet, presents a summary of the key trends and messages, with special emphasis on issues relating to health and the social determinants of health. Following the basic structure of the original report, this Summary Briefing provides a synopsis of key messages and a selection of graphs concerning fertility, mortality, ageing, migration, families, and the early effects of the economic crisis. These are supplemented by graphs produced using Eurostat data showing Healthy Life Years in relation to life expectancy and minimum pension ages. The briefing ends with policy recommendations based on this demographic data.

The full text of the Demography Report 2010 is available here. To read the Summary, click below.

Pages

Resources

Tweets

This website is supported by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI 2014-2020). The information contained in this website does not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of the European Commission. For more information see here.